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Removing an iMac CRT...

I considered posting a disclaimer to this post, but what the heck! Just for the record, I don't like Macs, but I wouldn't mind having one.

Here's the deal. My work is dumping off a two year old iMac because the CRT is dying. I wouldn't mind having a Mac to go along with my Windows and Linux computers. Afterall, I'm a computer junkie, and Macintoshes are computers too! *recites I have a dream speech*

Frankly, I would like to remove the CRT and salvage the parts in the machine, putting it all in another box. Its possible because I've seen it done. This iMac has a VGA port for a second monitor for mirroring purposes - perfect for me to plug in a spare monitor. The only question I have is concerning the monitor. I have heard horror stories of people getting killed by messing around with a CRT even after it has been unplugged. Well, this computer has been unplugged for practically a year and has just been sitting on a desk beside me collecting dust. Is there any possible way it could still be storing a charge? Is there anything else I should look out for when doing this little surgery? I don't want to die prematurely, ESPECIALLY if it's at the hands of a Mac. That would be too damned ironic, don't you think?

Re: Re: Removing an iMac CRT...

Originally posted by F_A_L_C_O_N by all means something like 15$ PSU from China would be much more appropriate

as for the question dont know would be still wary though, you know how those people got killed by touching the ark after all that time

LOL yeah it would be.

I've heard somewhere that the CRTs have a capacitor that stays charged anywhere from 20 minutes to 1 hour, but loses its charge any time after that. I don't know - I'll have to recycle the monitor once get it out, and then because I have a broken VCR I wouldn't mind putting the guts of this iMac into it. Be kinda fun, especially with the CDROM in the slot for the VHS tape!

Re: Re: Re: Removing an iMac CRT...

Originally posted by SaulTurnedPaul LOL yeah it would be.

I've heard somewhere that the CRTs have a capacitor that stays charged anywhere from 20 minutes to 1 hour, but loses its charge any time after that. I don't know - I'll have to recycle the monitor once get it out, and then because I have a broken VCR I wouldn't mind putting the guts of this iMac into it. Be kinda fun, especially with the CDROM in the slot for the VHS tape!

Now thats a cool idea, good if you gould get a dvd player to do that with the dvd drive as your cd rom!!

bah! i would do it, getting hit by 120 aint bad at all, its not like youre going to lick the lugs or anything but if youre wary, and dont take my advice- i wouldnt want to be the word that led to injury, so just use gloves!! pretty hard to get hit by any sort of voltage when you have a good insulator over your skin, also a good insulator.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Removing an iMac CRT...

Originally posted by Martin_89 Now thats a cool idea, good if you gould get a dvd player to do that with the dvd drive as your cd rom!!

It's definitely something I'm considering...

The stupid iMacs of this generation (333Mhz, 8GB HDD, slot feed CDROM) use a proprietary Mac IDE connector so I'd have to buy a special adapter or a drive for it. I believe the newer Macs aren't proprietary, they accept standard IDE connectors, in which case I could put my spare 12x DVD in there. Dunno, it's something to consider. Since the "logic board" as it is called is so small I could also probably fit it in an old Nintendo case, that is the original NES. THAT would be even cooler.

Well, this is definately good news. Perhaps I won't break it apart after all, eh? I decided to plug in the thing and see if they CRT just needed some degaussing. Well, everything looks fine. It hasn't been booted up in about 10 months or so, but you can take a look for yourself. Not a bad little thing, but it is in purple.

Since I don't know where I can put my pictures up for free, you'll have to click below to see the pic:

It's alright, I think Linux is better IMHO. In fact, there are some much better Mac emulators for Linux that make it better than what Mac actually provides because you get PC functionality with the cool Mac GUI. I think the OS is 8.4 or something like that - definitley in need of an upgrade, but plenty usable nonetheless. I'm shocked at how fast this thing is for only a 333MHz Motorola processor and 128MB of Ram. Handles Photoshop very nicely. The only problem with it is I can't get it to recognize my network - it asks for its own IP address, and I thought that was decided by the machine, not me. It also asks for the DNS server and a couple other things which I don't know the IP for. I wonder if I'll ever get it up and running with basic internet functionality.

Originally posted by Martin_89 well this is prob a silly questin but... i take it you can upgrade the OS on macs??

What about hardware?

its a pretty cool machine id quite like one but i already have too much hings on my list, and none of them cheap lol

Yeah, you can upgrade the OS but you lose just about every program you've got. It's pretty unfortunate for most Mac users, though the bright side is the loss of programs only occurs with a jump to OSX, which is powered by Unix. You lose your programs because you lose the entire previous programming language!

Hardware is pretty iffy on these machines - not only is there the serious danger (as noted in this thread) of messing around near the CRT, some of the stuff is soldered on. The "logic board" or motherboard on the iMac is right up next to the CRT and its capacitors which can kill you. The entire board is also more electrostatically sensitive that traditional motherboards because of the mounting of the powersupply. You can't mess around with the processors (they're fixed on) but you can add RAM, up to 256 I believe. You can also swap a hard drive but I don't know which kind these things take. It's also difficult to swap the CDROM because of the ATAPI interface which is different than traditional IDE (the plug is smaller for the ribbon cable). It's really not the desirable machine for upgrading, let me say that.

They're pretty cool but I would never pay for one. Luckily I work for a cutting-edge internet company so I get their dumpoffs, otherwise I would probably never own a Macintosh product besides my iPod. I didn't pay for that though either, it was a Christmas gift from my boss.